Outdoor living

Designing an outdoor space calls for both architectural savvy and a green thumb.

From petite terraces to sprawling patios, city-dweller dream of a serene and secluded outdoor retreat.

Choosing a palette of muted, tonal shades allows landscaping to take center stage. Hushed blondes and cool dove grays highlight lively greens and abundant florals.
Break up tranquil beachy whites with a vibrant pop of color. Jewel tones from deep violets to confident oranges pair perfectly with lush greenery.
Maximise capacity in small quarters with built-in seating arrangements. This alone can transform a petite patio into a lounge in one easy step.
Maximise capacity in small quarters with built-in seating arrangements. This alone can transform a petite patio into a lounge in one easy step.

Arts University Bournemouth

AUB awarded Gold standard rating.

The cube was secretly covered in gold overnight, so staff were greeted by the news of the Gold TEF award this morning when arriving on campus.

To celebrate and announce the news, AUB commissioned a special installation on campus. Karen Thurlow, Acting Head of Marketing explained:

“The installation, which is a piece of art in its own right, represents the microcosm of creativity on campus and houses over 400 inspiring images of this year’s students’ work. The piece visually represents how our incredible student work is nurtured and supported by AUB’s excellent teaching practice.”

The TEF is a new scheme for recognising excellent teaching, in addition to existing national quality requirements for universities, colleges and other higher education providers. It provides information to help prospective students choose where to study. Universities and colleges undergraduate teaching is assessed against ten criteria covering the areas of teaching quality, learning environment and student outcomes. The awards are decided by an independent TEF Panel of experts, including academics, students and employer representatives.

Based on the evidence available, the TEF Panel judged that AUB delivers consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes for its students. It is of the highest quality found in the UK.
The TEF Panel considers evidence from a set of metrics using national data as well as written evidence submitted by the provider.

The metrics cover continuation rates, student satisfaction and employment outcomes.
AUB was commended for the following:

The metrics indicate very high levels of satisfaction with teaching, feedback and academic support
Students from all backgrounds achieve consistently outstanding outcomes
Very high proportions continue with their studies and progress to employment and highly skilled employment or further study, notably exceeding the University’s benchmarks

Deputy Vice Chancellor of AUB, Professor Emma Hunt, said: “We are delighted to be awarded Gold by the Teaching Excellence Framework. We are extremely proud of our students and our teaching which educates, guides and inspires our community of makers at AUB.

Our staff’s extensive industry experience, excellent teaching and impactful research, alongside our state-of-the-art campus, means our students leave university with the skills they need to thrive in the world, something that is reflected by our consistently high employability rate.”

Source: AUB awarded Gold Rating in TEF – Arts University Bournemouth

Natural Ways

Good soil means everything for a gardener looking to raise healthy, happy plants.

While there are certainly countless chemicals and expensive solutions, there are actually many simple things you can do to boost nutrients and maintain a successful garden.

Curious to learn more?

Brave by Nature

Having the longest-reigning monarch coming to see the fastest bottling line in the UK was amazing.

Mr Montgomery showed the Queen the source of the water in the Ochil Hills from a viewing balcony before she was given a tour of the bottling hall, met staff and workers, and unveiled a plaque to mark her visit.

The 91-year-old monarch was presented with a specially-labelled bottle of Highland Spring water she helped make after pressing the button to start the new production line.

She was very impressed with the new bottle design and we presented one of the new bottles to her which she had effectively made.

The commemorative bottles have a crown on the thistle logo and the slogan ‘Specially selected for Her Majesty the Queen’.

Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh are spending Holyrood Week – known locally as Royal Week – visiting various regions around Scotland, meeting subjects across all walks of life and hosting thousands at Holyrood Palace.

Highland Spring’s TV advert celebrates being Brave By Nature. The UK’s No.1 bottled water brand embraces people’s thirst to make the most of everyday, and being hydrated with Highland Spring helps you to achieve this. The new ad takes you into the imagination of an everyday commuter running to catch the bus – Highland Spring style.

Healthy hydration with Highland Spring Kids

Highland Spring is the leading UK produced brand of bottled water and pioneer of the children’s bottled water market. Hydration is a vital part of a healthy and active lifestyle, and water is the healthiest refreshment for children and big kids alike.

Did you know…

  • Children (aged four to eight) should be drinking around 1.3 litres of fluid a day to stay well hydrated?*
  • This increases to 1.47 litres a day for boys and 1.33 litres a day for girls aged nine to 13.
  • Drinking more water helps children perform better in lessons: research shows being dehydrated can affect memory, concentration, coordination and reaction times.

Highland Spring pioneered the children’s bottled water market in 2001 and the company now produces one of the leading kid’s bottled waters in the UK. It is the UK’s most trusted bottled water brand (Source: NOP 2011), meaning peace of mind for parents.

Available in handy 330ml sports bottles, Highland Spring for Kids is ideal for lunchboxes, drinking during exercise and keeping hydration levels topped up at home and on the go. Highland Spring for Kids is available in most major retailers in packs of 12.

Nobile Farace Sisters

Nobile Nicoletta Farace de Grundland and Nobile Fiammetta Farace de Zanelli, visited Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, New York for the first time on June 15, 2017. Their grandfather Prince Ioann Konstantinovich Romanov was a son of a granddaughter of Duke Bernhard II of Saxe-Meiningen in whose Hunting Lodge at Marienthal Friedrich Froebel was invited to train women as Kindergarten teachers.

Also in attendance was Johannes Froebel Parker, author of The First Kindergarten,

Johannes Froebel Parker visited Nicoletta and her mother Princess Ekaterina in Uruguay. They often talked about how Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna Romanowa of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach supported Kindergarten. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna Romanowa of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was a granddaughter of Catherine the Great and sister of Alexander I and Nicholas I, from whom the Nobile Farace sisters are descended.

The two sisters were close to their mother’s aunt, Princess Vera, who lived the last part of her life near New York City and who bequeathed to the Museum of Russian History at Holy Trinity Monastery, many articles belonging to her branch of the Romanov family, the Konstantovichi.  It was the wish of the community for many years that these two sisters would visit the monastery and view these important relics of Russia’s glorious and tragic imperial family.  Igumen Theophylact, during his trips to Argentina, made the acquaintance of Nicoletta and was overjoyed at their arrival.

Nicoletta and Fiammetta were impressed with the care and honor with which the relics are preserved.  Portraits, letters, photographs, family items, such as a Faberge family tree, sparked the interest and admiration of the two sisters. They were especially satisfied that they are in the right place and are being preserved for future generations. Quite poignant and sad was their viewing of the results of the investigation of the massacre of the Romanovs, which took place on July 17 and 18, 1918.

On July 18 (N.S.), 1918, the day after the murder of the Russian Imperial family, the sister of the Empress, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, and other relatives of theirs, including the brothers, Princes Igor, Konstantin and Ioann Konstantinovich, were likewise killed by communist henchmen in Alpaevsk in the Ural Mountains area.

The two sisters are daughters of the late Princess Ekaterina of Russia, one of the two children of Prince Ioann and his wife, Princess Elena Petrovna of Serbia.  Their father was a diplomat in service of the government of Italy. They were born and raised in countries around the world.  Nicoletta married and settled in Montevideo, Uruguay. Fiammetta lives in Long Island, New York.

Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, New York.

Source: A Visit from the Nobile Farace Sisters

Upside down

Who’s to say
What’s impossible
Well they forgot
This world keeps spinning
And with each new day
I can feel a change in everything
And as the surface breaks reflections fade
But in some ways they remain the same
And as my mind begins to spread it’s wings
There’s no stopping curiosity

I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I’ll find the things they say just can’t be found
I’ll share this love I find with everyone
We’ll sing and dance to Mother Nature’s songs
I don’t want this feeling to go away

Who’s to say
I can’t do everything
Well I can try
And as I roll along I begin to find
Things aren’t always just what they seem

I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I’ll find things they say just can’t be found
I’ll share this love I find with everyone
We’ll sing and dance to Mother Nature’s songs
This world keeps spinning and there’s no time to waste
Well it all keeps spinning spinning round and round and

Upside down
Who’s to say what’s impossible and can’t be found
I don’t want this feeling to go away

Please don’t go away
Please don’t go away
Please don’t go away
Is this how it’s supposed to be
Is this how it’s supposed to be

Songwriters: JACK HODY JOHNSON
© Universal Music Publishing Group
For non-commercial use only.

Congress of Vienna

Balance each other and remain at peace.

The first occasion in history where, on a continental scale, national representatives came together to formulate treaties, instead of relying mostly on messages between the several capitals.

Held in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815, though the delegates had arrived and were already negotiating by late September 1814, the objective of the Congress was to provide a long term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other and remain at peace.

Most of the discussions occurred in informal, face-to-face, sessions among the Great Powers of Austria, Britain, France, Russia, and sometimes Prussia, with limited or no participation by other delegates.

The leaders were conservatives with little use for republicanism or revolution, both of which threatened to upset the status quo in Europe.

France lost all its recent conquests, while Prussia, Austria and Russia made major territorial gains. Prussia added smaller German states in the west, Swedish Pomerania and 60% of the Kingdom of Saxony; Austria gained Venice and much of northern Italy. Russia gained parts of Poland. The new Kingdom of the Netherlands had been created just months before, and included formerly Austrian territory that in 1830 became Belgium.

The Congress has often been criticized for causing the subsequent suppression of the emerging national and liberal movements, and it has been seen as a reactionary movement for the benefit of traditional monarchs. Others praise it for having created relatively long term stable and peaceful conditions in most of Europe.

The Duck Dance

Called Der Ententanz (The Duck Dance), by its Swiss born composer Werner Thomas, the song was written in 1969 and first recorded as a folksy fun tune in 1973. However, it was the remake in 1981 by the Dutch band Electonica that became an instant hit on the European charts

Then, taking a cue from the musical charts, the Heilbronn oompah band from Germany brought the ‘Chicken Dance’ to the Tulsa, Oklahoma Oktoberfest complete with tubas and trumpets. Success was instant and today Der Ententanz has sold 40 million copies in 42 countries and is a “must have” at every Oktoberfest around the world.

The original song never had lyrics, but the German pop artist Frank Zander added some shortly after the song’s rise into stardom, and called the song Ja, wenn wir alle Englein wären (Yes, if we all were angels).

So, wherever you are in the world, if you are in the mood to celebrate Oktoberfest at home, then broil yourself a crispy Brathendl, pour some Hofbräu, Salvator or Augustiner beer, get a pretzel from the bread basket and start dancing.

Source: Oktoberfest Brathendl, and the Chicken Dance

(Shh, seid doch mal ruhig, Onkel Fred hat uns was wichtiges zu erzählen…)

Gestern Abend im Verein
Trank ich zu viel roten Wein
(Hättst du das bloß nicht gemacht hahahaha)
Das Theater das war groß,
viel der Wirtin auf den Schoß
(doch der Wirt hat nicht gelacht hohohoho)
Mann, ich war total im Tran,
und kam nie zu Hause an
(und wo warst du über Nacht-Nacht-Nacht-Nacht-Nacht?)
Wachte auf im fremden Bett,
doch das fand man gar nicht nett
(wer hätte das von dir gedacht hahahaha)

Ja, wenn wir alle Englein wären,
dann wär die Welt nur halb so schön.
Wenn wir nur auf die Tugend schwören,
dann könnten wir doch gleich schlafen gehn.

Mit Diät und Dauertrab
Nahm ich sieben Kilo ab.
(Hättst du das bloß nicht gemacht hahahaha)
Ich trank nur noch Selta pur,
kannte jede Schlankheitskur
(was hast du dir dabei gedacht? Hohohoho)
Doch dann kam Besuch aus Bonn,
ich träum heute noch davon
(hättst du bloß nicht aufgemacht hahahaha)
Jeden Abend Riesenschmaus,
keinen Nachtisch ließ ich aus
und der Bauch kam wieder raus
(hahahaha) Ja

Ja, wenn wir alle Englein wären,
dann wär die Welt nur halb so schön.
Wenn wir nur auf die Tugend schwören,
dann könnten wir doch gleich schlafen gehn.

Auf der Reise nach Paris
ging es mir im Flugzeug mies.
(hättst du bloß auf mich gehört! Hihihihi)
Und die Blonde Stewardess
hatte meinetwegen Stress
(und bestimmt auch umgekehrt. Hohohoho)
ich war so dankbar und galant
und bat sie um ihre Hand
(das war ganz und gar verkehrt hahahaha)
doch dann vor dem Traualtar
war sie plötzlich nicht mehr da
nahm den ersten besten Flug nach Kanada

Ja, wenn wir alle Englein wären,
dann wär die Welt nur halb so schön.
Wenn wir nur auf die Tugend schwören,
dann könnten wir doch gleich schlafen gehn.

Ja, wenn wir alle Englein wären,
dann wär die Welt nur halb so schön.
Wenn wir nur auf die Tugend schwören,
dann könnten wir doch gleich schlafen gehn.

The German Question

The New York Times summarized its views of German nationalism shortly after the outbreak of the Austro Prussian war in 1866:

There is, in political geography, no Germany proper to speak of. There are Kingdoms and Grand Duchies, and Duchies and Principalities, inhabited by Germans, and each separately ruled by an independent sovereign with all the machinery of State. Yet there is a natural undercurrent tending to a national feeling and toward a union of the Germans into one great nation, ruled by one common head as a national unit.

Although the Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen fought with the Kingdom of Prussia, the Principlaity of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt remained neutral in this war, as did the grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

Talks between these German states had failed in 1848 to establish a unified German nation.

In 1871, Bismarck used the prestige gained from the victory of the Franco Prussian war to declare the German Empire, in which the Kingdom Prussia became the dominant power. The Austrian Empire included many places inhabited for centuries by Germans.